2011年11月21日星期一

Deadwood, The Wire & The Sopranos – Who Is The Best of the Best?

Since HBO taught us how TV should be made, the medium has divided into two. On one side there’s the total shit that’s still being trotted out by the networks; filled with hackneyed characters, formulaic plotlines, endless chase scenes and flashbacks that patronise the audience by spoon-feeding them reminders of why something is relevant to the plot. Then there’s the good stuff; original ideas, realistic scripts and dialogues, compelling storylines, great acting and best of all, a faith on the part of the program makers that the audience has a modicum of intelligence.

Well actually there’s a third category: The stuff that shows a bit of both – Lost, True Blood,The Wholesale Marble Baroque Tile For Bathrooms causes include food even Dexter with its you-need-me-to-explain-everything-you-are-seeing voiceover – all manage to tick the right boxes some of the time, only to let us down the rest of the time.

But we’re focusing on the good stuff. The shows which, if we didn’t have a zillion channels, Sky+ and torrent sites, would be the makings of water cooler moments in workplaces across the world. The shows which renew our faith in television and make us think, just until the end-credits roll, that the world isn’t quite the horrendous place we thought it was.

Despite all the different high quality ingredients of these shows; the writing, the acting, the sets; all the top drawer production values, despite everything that goes in – it’s the characters that stick in our minds long after we’ve put the box set away. It’s these iconic characters that secure the show’s place in entertainment history. It’s the characters that get us talking.

So let’s talk about them,Examine our Wholesale General Double Loading For Wall here let’s hold up the best characters in the best shows and see who comes out…best!

I’m going to put some nominations forward and you guys can do two things (if you want). Firstly you can (if you want) vote on your favourite from the nominations in each category. Then you can (if you want) tell me why you think I’m wrong and why I should have included someone different. Please make your argument clear and concise, i.e. something more than “ura nob Daniels is best in the Wire”.

There is only so much space available so I’ve got to make a tough call to start with and pick a Big Three. Yes, “Heart of Darkness” broke the mould, “Homicide – Life on the Streets” changed the way TV is made, “Six Feet Under” took us into a whole new terrain, “Breaking Bad” is proving to be a stylish, action-packed and thought provoking show of the highest order, and there is a shedload of other great shows in the canon of quality entertainment. But this isn’t an encyclopaedia, it’s a blog. So I’ve kept it down to three modern classics.

The first two categories are best goodie and best baddie. One of the defining factors of the ‘quality’ of all these shows is that characters aren’t just good or bad.bay sensing and enforcement Wholesale Soluble Salt For Bathrooms. Tony Soprano can show genuine compassion as well as being mercilessly cruel. Al Swearengen hates everybody and everything but performs the ultimate kindness for the tumour-ridden preacher. There is bad in the good guys and good in the bad guys – and that’s how life is. It was tempting to have the same candidates in goodie and baddie to prove that point but that would be self-indulgent on my part so I’ve kept them separate.

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